Looking for a boring summer job? Dads can be an excellent source.Before school ended in June, we told our daughter Annie she had to get a job this summer to earn some money for college. We gave her suggestions of places to look; she stalled, hoping we'd forget about it and let her spend the summer sitting on the sofa watching reality TV. So Bob found her a job at an office and she's been miserably bored there for a few weeks now, coming home with tales of standing at the photocopier for two hours straight and having nothing to do for large chunks of time.
Of course I had to tell her about the summer job I had when I was 18. My father found this job for me too, as a collections agent for a major consumer credit company. All day long I called people and asked them when we could expect payments on their refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances. This was back in the days before Caller ID, so I actually spoke to people. And they hated hearing from me. I was hung up on or called names fifty percent of the time. My coworkers were all much older than me and resented that my father had a connection to their boss. The one bonding moment with my colleagues occurred when an employee in the office building we worked in killed himself by jumping from the eighth floor. We all went upstairs to the top floor to view his sprawled body below. (No, I don't know what possessed me to look, but the image wasn't as gross as you'd think it would be. Not that I'm advocating racing to look at the next jumper you hear about, but just so you know.) And that was my first summer job.
What about you, dear readers? What was your most boring or awful summer job? Or maybe you were lucky and had a really great summer job once? Do tell.
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On the sewing front: Have I told you lately how much I hate sewing home dec? I just finished making four jumbo pillow covers for Annie's dorm room and I cursed every minute of it. I'm thinking my poor son David is going to get sent off to college with the same bed stuff I've packed for his sleepaway camp all these years, like it or not. (Not that he'd actually care that much. That's what's so great about boys.) If I don't post much in August it's because I am not doing sewing of any consequence or I'm just being boring as I get ready to send my firstborn off to college at the end of the month. But you guys keep sewing the great things you're making and help me get inspired for fall, okay?
32 comments:
Well, since you asked....my first summer job and my first job ever is the one that convinced me that I must go to college.
I lived in a small furniture factory town and got a job as a shampoo girl at the local salon. This was during the time when women got their hair "fixed" once a week and just added more hairspray every day between. My job was to brush the hairspray/sawdust crap out and wash that mess.
The highlights:
- the 30+ virgin sisters that came each week to read the True Confession magazines
- the old lady with gray (green after all of the rinses) who had about 100 warts on her scalp. That one gagged me every time but she was sweet.
- the only nice customer was the woman who was the call girl at the local hotel. She was the only one who tipped me and her hair didn't have any sawdust.
You asked.
Summer in St. Louid, where I grew up, is too miserable for words. One summer I got a job at the County courthouse, posting tax payments on those huge posting machines, which I think were obsolete even then! One of the other ladies was quite a bit older and must have been going thru menopause. She insisted that the air conditioner be on so strong that I absolutely froze to death! And she wouldn't budge! Then she started threatening me if I even LOOKED like I was cold! It finally culminated in my leaving the job as I was not yet able to stand up for myself. It was truly a miserable experience.
Gail D.
The Australia system is a little different, so my worst was an after school job working as a dental assistant. The dentist was an Indian man and I couldn't always understand what he was saying to me over the noise of the drill (excruciating for a dentalphobe like me!). I also worked in a doughnut shop and a 'hot dog attorium, complete with 31 flavours of icecream. My worst ever jobs was as a young traveller - picking ginger (tears the skin off your fingers) and in a plastics factory in Israel (pure tedium printing labels on Helena Rubenstein bottles. Each of these experiences reinforced my need to get a degree.
Excuse me Meg- but I just laughed my a$$ off with your post.
I am sorry I sound crass, but last night my 20 year old called from his summer college research job, telling us that he actually worked an 8 hour shift in the lab and.....was...... exhausted!!!!!!
My first job was working in my father's pharmacy as a 14 year old. I had to package up Modess products for customers and I was more embarrassed than they were.My father would explain what each prescription was and what it treated.....what an education.....
Since summer jobs were important to me (how else was I going to afford the fabric and Vogue Patterns that my mom wouldn't buy me!)
I was one of those horrible teens looking for one very early in the year...so I don't remember having an awful summer job. I spent quite a few summers as a summer camp counselor in my town's local park system...doing arts and crafts, swinging, learning to play spades and bringing home loads of stray kids for my mom to feed!
My summer job, three summers from high school into college, was by way of my father too. I worked at a television state doing "promotion" and weekend receptionist at first. Promotion, the first year, was folding maps of the viewing area and mailing them out, by the thousands. Once they figured out I was a little brighter than that they put me on the reception desk. The highlight of this three year stint was when Ted Kennedy went off the bridge at Chappaquidick. Our station was the closest to the calamity and became the network hub for all of the news. I had a front row seat on history I will never forget. I remember the stringer, aka freelance reporter, running into the station out of breath with his film. I was on all that weekend and saw all the characters come and go as the story developed.
My second and third years at the station I was assistant to the art director, a man who really didn't care to work very hard and let me pretty much do his job. It was the best fun and I still remember him and the job very fondly. They used my props I built for Sunday Mass for the next ten years. I got to maintain Miss Susan's Romper Room set, colorized the photos for the evening news. ,make ads, and shop in the art store with an unlimited budget. My boss taught me so much and was a great guy.
My first summer job was with a temporary service, I figured there would be variety and it wouldn't be as boring. The first week I was a telemarketer for magazine subscriptions.We were put in individual cubbies with a phone book in front of us and a phone. Our job was to call each listing one by one and try to sell magazines from a copy that they placed in front of us.Our goal was to get through the whole printed copy before they would hang up. They told us they would be listening in to see how we were doing.
Needless to say I found myself speaking even faster then I usually do just to get though the copy. Actually that was way before caller ID and people were nicer then somehow,many waited until I was finished talking to say NO!
The thing that ended it for me was I found myself trying to sell to a very old lady a package of magazines and she was feeling sorry for me and was about to make the purchase when I found myself saying that this wasn't a bargain for her and I couldn't sell them to her. She thanked me , I think she was only buying them because she felt sorry for me.Needless to say they were probably listening in because I wasn't called back for the next day. I was thrilled!!! Then there was the week at the cemetery but that is another story......:O)
My best summer job was after my junior year in college. In connection to the film society I ran I got a summer job at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. It included airfare and no real work because we weren't union members(there were 5 of us) We even got tickets to a movie preview which was fun, and tours of other studios. By far better than the summer I worked in a factory.
I worked at the Rag Shop for two summers in college. One day a customer wanted to buy fabric to recover her dining room chair cushions but she didn't know how much fabric to buy. I asked her how large the chair seats were, and she paused and said, "as big as my butt". I was thinking, "Are you asking me to measure your butt?" We worked it out somehow.
OK, but only if you tell this to your daughter to make her grateful for that boring job,,,huh, like any of us were ever grateful for advice from our elders. I worked one job in the small town library for all four years of high school, then took a second job in the town pharmacy during my senior year of high school. But I needed to make more money that just part time so the summer after my senior year I took a job for 2 1/2 months at the town laundry. Worst job of my life. I operated the line of shirt ironing machines, moving men's white shirts from one pressing machine to another then to the folding machine at the end. He** ccouldn't be any hotter than that summer job. My other three friends quit after about one month but my mother insisted that I keep my commitment to the owners and work all summer. No one my age to talk to, on my feet all day in un-air conditioned warehouse like building. But hey, it paid me more money than either of those other two jobs. It definitely made it clear to my why I was attending college. Now, on the other hand, the following two summers were the best job of my life...tour guide at the construction site of the New York World Trade Center. That's a whole other, more enjoyable story.
Why is it we all seem to hate our first summer jobs? My father was a prominent Democrat in our small town – the proverbial big fish in a small pond. He got me a cushy patronage job filling in at various county offices and I did fun stuff like issuing pistol permits, searching for property deeds, and typing reports. At the end of the summer, I was able to buy a pair of really nice speakers for my stereo system. Stereo systems were very important back then!!!
I also worked in my Dad's corner grocery store. The fun part was when people would line up starting at 11:57 AM because we couldn't sell beer until 12:00 PM
This is a fun post. I'm enjoying everyone's stories!!!
Shoe store when I was 16. Ugh. I like shoes and all... but not THAT much. Pacing around the floor, trying to look busy until someone needed me to look in the back for something. I don't hesitate to ask sales associates for help now. I figure they're bored out of their mind and need a little excitement. :-) A couple of summers later, I worked in a law office downtown, doing all kids of errands and paperwork. I actually really liked that. Always something different, although I did spend a fair amount of time at the copier and shredder.
I had two awful summer jobs! One was, like yours, in a collections department and the other was as a trainer at My Fair Lady. I worked 12 hour days at MFL and made slave wages plus commission. Six times a day I led an exercise class for a bunch of Magdas (Something about Mary) who whined every time I made them break a sweat. My best summer job was watching one old movie after another the summer we first got HBO. ;-) Is that a bad thing?
A few summers ago I worked in customer service at a major super retailer, I was still taking one class that summer. They constantly scheduled me to work during my class even though on my application I put that I was unavailable during that time. I also got screamed at by every customer wanting to return an electronic item.. None of the managers had gone to college and they would constantly come to me to ask me how something should be done...not worth minimum wage!
My first real summer job was as a housekeeper at a motel near a lake. This was, oh, let's just call it a budget motel. I learned many things that summer. What I didn't stumble across myself in the rooms that were assigned to me, my fellow cleaners were more than happy to show me from their rooms. Good times (not).
My goodness. We have so many similar stories. I can't say that I've had a boring or God awful summer job. I may have been blinded by gratefulness and couldn't see that packing food boxes or copying and stuffing envelopes was a nightmare. The payoff was the paycheck.
My DD will be completing her last semester at U of I. Every job she has worked, I got for her. This summer I encouraged her to work every day all day to earn as much money as possible. Even if it means answering phones and playing receptionist. It worth the extra cash.
Job are scarce for everyone.
C
My first summer job wasn't for the money, it was to get me out of the house! I was 17 and the last chick in the nest. What better way to fly than to work, right? It was a small town variety store, years before Walmart. I stocked shelves, helped customers and tried to run the cash register. This was back in the day before electronic registers which prompt your every move. I learned how to be on time, deal with the public (a real life skill) and how to count back change to a customer. First you count the coins into their hand, then count the bills up the amount they gave you. SO much better than clerks today who plop bills, then coins and an oversized receipt into your hand and expect you to get out of their way fast.
I could teach toose young whipper snappers a thing or two, I tell you lol!
Well, I was a lifeguard, so I basically sat out in the sun making sure none of the kids killed themselves in the city pool. I also got to teach little 6 year olds how to swim. So adorable and so fun. Can't say I can complain about that job -- best tan I ever had!
Growing up in the factory belt I of course worked in one. It was a greeting card manufacturer that had a wing called "Christmas Box Assortment". Picture this...two conveyor belts flanked with teenagers boxing up Christmas cards as they floated down the belt. I was a card counter, 24 to the box. The envelopes went on next and then the coveted job "top card". That's right, this kid got to sit there all day and simply drop the final top card on the pile before the next person put on the clear plastic top. The radio was blasting all day long and every now and then, with a nod to Lucy and Ethel, the boxes would come down faster than we could fill them and you can picture the rest! Being with all the other kids made it fun even though the 8 hours did seem to drag. My heart went out to the lifers that called this place their work 50 weeks a year. There were some wonderful people there that took us under their wing.
PS loved the story about the hair salon from Vicki W!
OMG - Home Dec....bleacK!!!!! It's like 1 straight line sewn and 999,999,999,999 more to go!!! Ugh!
Summer job - filed checks at a bank, by hand, from reading them with my own eyes on the checks, learning what each squiggle on that bottom line of the check actually spelled out - something to do, but oh - so booooooring!
I feel much better after reading all these - it really is a rite of passage isn't it. My absolute worst was a waitressing job I started only to find out too late that the school bully worked there, getting a shove while you are trying to carry coffees is not good (after a few months of misery my good friend called and pretended to be me and quit that one for me!). I also made prepackaged sandwiches one summer - revolting, really crummy ingredients which we were told to put along the diagonal so it looked like a full sandwich when it was cut.
My first summer job was at a candy booth in a town full of Navy sailors and summer tourists. The store was called "Jo Anne's Nut House." Ask me how many jokes I heard about male genitalia. Occasionally someone would ask if I worked in the looney bin but mostly they made jokes about "balls" and "nuts", you get the idea. That job sucked.
My parents actually didn't want me to work... and wanted me to just study. Despite that I went and got a job... my first summer job was at a optometrist's office and I loved it! I learned so much, tried contacts for the first time and taught others how to put in contacts, and made great friends.
An update for my readers on Annie and her job: She got her first paycheck this week and it's amazing how much the complaining has decreased. Many of her friends wanted to work this summer but were unable to find jobs, so yes, she realizes she is very lucky.
From 15 I worked every Friday night and Saturday morning and all school holidays at a supermarket. I worked in the fruit and veg department. This was back in the day when the produce was put onto trays with plastic wrap around them. I had the worst job of taking the produce out of wooden boxes and putting onto trays. Lots of spiders and splinters up my nails! Sometime I had the glamour job of actually putting the plastic around the trays :)
Ahh, the good old days....
Ok, here is a terrible job I had. Proof reading insurance policies-UGG! Pages and pages and pages of the most boring crap you ever saw. Your policy will not pay if you are engaged in an illegal act, participating in an act of war, or acting in an insurrection. Now you know.
I worked in the kitchen of a local hospital delivering trays of food to patients. My mother was an RN at the same hospital and she got me the job. I had a good work ethic because I knew my performance would reflect on my Mom. It was not a great gig, the work was boring and I felt bad for the patients because this in the 70's and hospital food was really bad in those days. But I learned a lot about dealing with the public. I have some college age nieces who rant about boring work and I don't put up with it, I tell them if they want to get anywhere in life they need to suck it up, stop complaining and do the job right whether they like it or not. One thing I don't tolerate from anyone is a sense of entitlement, even from my co-workers today!
Good for you for making your daughter get a job! My niece allows her daughters to pretty much do as they please "because they are so busy with friends". I understand the impulse to let the young enjoy their youth, but I think a parent's job is also to prepare them for real life.
I had 3 'first summer jobs, one was so bad I quit the first day and refused the paltry paycheck they offered me not wanting to be associated with them, not even their money! There was also delivering auto parts for my step brothers parts store - yew - and then a strangly romantic job of going door to door with a shetland pony taking pictures of children on him with my little cowboy kit.
While in college I had a summer job similar to your daughter's. The only difference was that I mimeographed construction orders all day. I went home with purple hands every night. I also worked on an assembly line making on/off knobs for TVs screwing in the same part for 8 hours a day. In high school during the summers I was a car hop at the A&W I liked that job, by the mimeographing & assembly line jobs paid better and gave me my weekends off.
I totally thought of you yesterday - we were at IKEA and it was packed to the gills with college students and their parents. We'd never seen the place that crazy! Good luck getting Annie all moved in in the next couple of weeks. Seeing all of the college kids, it was fun remembering the crazy of moving into the dorms and then subsequently, the sorority house and all of the anticipation and fun that came along with it. She is getting ready to enter such a great stage of life. :)
My daughter has been working at Rita's for the past three years, but this summer I told her she had to get a second job to pull in some serious fast cash for college this Fall. So at the beginning of June, we printed out 10 copies of her resume, dressed her up in professional clothes, coached her on interview questions/answers, body language, etc., and we visited 7 nice restaurants in our area one nice Saturday. By the following Friday she interviewed and landed her first waitressing job. She quickly realized how lucrative waitressing can be for a college student LOL. I read in some college preparation magazine last Spring to avoid jobs with a set hourly wage and look for jobs like waitressing that can pay much more than a set hourly wage.
It's been a very interesting experience for her because waitressing isn't all that easy with lots of personality types. Would you believe her question of the summer was, "When I have to refuse to serve alcohol to customers when they're visibly drunk, why can't I refuse to serve fatty desserts at Rita's when people are very overweight?" (A future doctor's irritated question I might add). It's one I truly had a hard time answering the more I thought about it. Deep ramifications the longer I pondered the question.
But anyway...my first summer jobs at the ripe old age of 12 were picking produce on a farm for my friend's uncle and working at her mother's ice cream stand and deli. I learned quickly that I didn't like working outside with bugs and heat, and that a person can actually eat so much ice cream that they'll eventually get sick of it (and gain too much weight too). If ice cream disappeared off the face of the Earth today, I wouldn't care one iota!
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